The Time Scout
by Deepclaw
Summary: Miko finds herself alone in subarctic Canada after her plan to tag along with the Autobots goes terribly wrong. Injured, her only hope is a white tigress that comes to her rescue - and this tiger is more than meets the eye. TF:Prime/Beast Wars


**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own Transformers: Prime, or Beast Wars, or anyone in the fic. Only the story itself. _

**Summary**_: Miko finds herself alone in subarctic Canada after her plan to tag along with the Autobots goes terribly wrong. Injured, her only hope is a white tigress that comes to her rescue. But this tiger is more than meets the eye. TF:Prime/BeastWars!_

**Author's Notes**_: Does anyone know a Beta who reads/accepts Beast Wars and TF:Prime fics and is knowledgeable about each verse? Who is open and willing to accept a couple fics I miiiight have in progress? I must have gone through at least seventy on the Beta search and I can't find one that looks active or who won't run away from some slash. ._. _

_I wanted a Beta for this fic because I've no idea if I hit the mark with everyone's characterizations in TF:Prime. I think I got the bots down, at least marginally, but the humans are a little harder to figure out, especially Miko's enthusiastic self. So, let me know if she seems OOC, or if anyone's actions need to change. This fic is set somewhere after episode 16, but before June joins the main cast. I also tried for a bit of Cartoon Campiness in the opening scene just so it seemed like something that might actually happen in the show. _

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**The Time Scout**

**Chapter 1**

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The bright green glow of the space bridge cast its light into the main chamber of Autobot base where everybot was priming their weapons and preparing for battle. It was controlled chaos, the excited movements of the Transformers a sharp contrast to their previously relaxed cadence. And Miko Nakadai watched it all with the same enthusiasm she'd ever had for these moments. She stood on the catwalk, she, Jack, and Raf at almost eye level with their Autobot friends and waiting patiently for the send off.

"I'm landing the ground bridge at the southernmost shore of Great Bear Lake," Ratchet was announcing to everyone. "It's northwest of Yellowknife, a city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It's cold, it's snowy, it's potentially dangerous to your health. You all watch yourselves. It's not as cold as our last few trips into the arctic, but it's cool enough to wreak havoc on your systems if you take a wrong step."

"Understood, Ratchet," Optimus said, nodding. "Is there any equipment we need to take with us this time?"

"No, Optimus," Ratchet replied. As Bumblebee walked past with the medical computers still connected to his back from his previously in progress diagnostic, the medic caught him and quickly removed the cables. "I think I have everything I can collect. The signal only appeared for a moment and a scan revealed its structure. But other than that, there isn't anything we can do but find out whoever or whatever came through that bridge."

"And you're certain it's a space bridge? _Not_ a ground bridge," Arcee asked. As far as she knew, space bridges belonged in_ space_. For whatever reason physics and slag allowed, ground bridges were specifically made for travel on a planet's surface. Mixing them up could be deadly.

Ratchet gave her a Look. "I think I know the difference between a space and ground bridge, Arcee."

The motorbike raised her hands in a placating gesture, an amused apology on her face.

"And Optimus?" the white and orange mech continued. "Keep an eye out for MECH. Anyone with a radar dish and a computer could have picked up that signal."

"I will, old friend."

Miko looked on with wide eyes, her imagination doing flips over what could possibly happen out there, but her attention was drawn by Bulkhead. He was hard to miss, considering everything from his chest upwards loomed over her, and he had his game face on.

"Hey, Bulk! Ready to kick some '_Con behind_?" She shadow boxed the air a bit, but Bulkhead narrowed an optic, extra squinty.

"Miko?" he started solemnly. "I need you to promise me you won't follow us this time."

Miko paused in her boxing and pouted.

"No, Miko. That won't work on me. I'm serious. It's dangerous up there and, well, you don't even have a jacket," he added lamely. He had to fall back on dumb suggestions sometimes.

"_That's_ true," Miko answered, dropping her puppy eyes to the ground. "What kind of girl has a winter jacket in the middle of Nevada, right?" She smiled innocently.

Bulkhead nodded certainly. "Right. But I_ still_ want you to promise."

Jack and Raf looked at her expectantly. They both had plenty enough experience chasing after the punk girl on her escapades and ending up in very bad situations as a result. Miko's tiger eyes looked at each boy for a moment, then at Bulkhead, and then over where the rest of the Autobots were discussing the strange activity that had them all animated.

With a dramatic sigh, she slumped in defeat and said, "Okaaaay…"

"_Promise_ me, Miko," the green bot said again with a warning tone and crossed arms.

"I_ promise_, Bulkhead," she retorted with the same tone, her arms behind her back. Unbeknownst to the others, all her fingers were crossed. There was no way she was missing out if she didn't have to. But that didn't mean Jack and Raf needed to come along too and risk their lives. If they saw her bolt, they'd be right behind her, as always. Hence, she was about to commence her Totally Super Awesome Secret Plan to leave them behind for once, for their own good.

The boys and her Autobot looked relieved. Bulkhead nodded in approval and turned to his team, joining them just as Optimus finished a small speech. Looking back at the humans as he left, Bulkhead made sure he found Miko right where he'd left her, as far away from the bridge as possible, before he turned and readied himself for his march onto the bridge.

The Autobot leader then raised his arm and brought it down with finality, "Autobots; let's roll out!"

In moments, four Autobot warriors ran through the green portal, and in a blinding flash they were gone.

"Good luck, guys," Raf smiled softly, even though none of the bots would hear him.

"Hm... Hey, Raf, wanna race?" Jack asked suddenly, pointing a thumb at the game console behind them.

"Sure! Miko?"

Both boys turned to their slightly crazy female friend, but she wasn't there.

"Uh…Miko?"

A glance around the chamber didn't reveal a splash of pink anywhere, but a small sticky note on the railing told everything they needed to know.

_Bet you can't find me! _

Ratchet turned from the main computer to look around as well, his usual frustration increasing tenfold.

"Oh, where is she now?" he grumped. "She better not have followed Optimus. She has no idea the kind of danger this could - "

"Don't worry, Ratchet," Jack said, waving the sticky note. "Bulkhead made her promise and she actually sounded sincere this time. I think she has a new game in mind."

"I'll play!" Raf piped, setting aside his backpack and placing his laptop on a nearby table.

"Alright…" Ratchet agree, reluctantly. He stooped as if telling a spooky story. "Just don't touch anything important. And if you find _her_ touching anything important, make her _stop._ By _any_ means necessary."

The medic brandished a wrench and looked so grave Raf had to giggle. Doing so disappointed Ratchet, but what was he to do? For some reason, everyone around here thought they could just smash machinery whenever they wished and it wouldn't have consequences.

"Alright," Jack smiled. "Come on, Raf."

The pair ran off, and Ratchet was left staring after them thoughtfully. His gaze fell back on the main screen, doubt niggling at the edge of his mind. It was just like Miko to leave behind a false trail so she could complete some devious activity. But he'd give her the benefit of the doubt. For now.

She'd better turn up somewhere soon and it better not be in Canada.

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Miko felt _so_ _slick_ right now.

Here she was at the edge of a battle droid death match, her heroes undoubtedly the future winners! On the left were the Autobots, who'd been engaged as soon as they exited the ground bridge. On the right, the dreadful losers - the Decepticons.

The anomalous space bridge signal was either a trap meant to draw the 'Bot's attention, or the Decepticons had detected it and came to investigate before the Autobots arrived. It was difficult to tell which was right, but after the 'Cons were chased off (or destroyed) she'd pop out of her hiding place and ask what her friends thought. She could just imagine their faces when they saw she'd come with them completely undetected for once. Then they'd investigate, have a few words, and go home.

Finally, she could snap some _real_ pictures of _real_ fighting. She loved being saved by the bots and all, but the way they fought when there were friends' lives at stake and the way they fought when they weren't held back was totally different. She loved it! It made all her work worthwhile.

Making it from all the way up the scaffolding to the ground bridge without being seen seemed impossible, but with a little duct tape, string, some acrobatics, a wooden plank, a canister of fuel, and a sweet little skateboard she'd managed to do it in under eight seconds. She'd been planning and setting it up for a couple weeks now since the little encounter with a zombie Skyquake nearly got the boys killed. The whole 'we're going to the subarctic' factor was a surprise but she'd planned ahead for that, too. What kind of girl had a winter jacket in the middle of Nevada, indeed. She'd grabbed it from its hiding place under the catwalk on her way out. She was _so_ the _bomb_!

The fifteen year old kept her crouching stance as she tip toed over to a large rock. Peeking over its snow dusted surface, she saw she was clear of Decepticon detection and flashed herself over to a fringe of evergreen trees. From there, she started to climb up a trail towards a rock cliff. Keeping low to the ground, she eventually reached it and crawled forward. Her breath misted into the air around her, and she soon found herself at the best possible position over the field she could possibly hope for. They were all so close! But they and the deadly fireballs they were all blasting at each other were far enough away that she thought she was safe.

For a moment, she was distracted by the majesty of the landscape. From her position on the rocky outcropping, she could see the vast lake in its shiny glory. The grey sky shielded the sun mostly, but it was still bright, and the snow that covered the surrounding hills and pine tree forests glowed a gentle white. The lake itself was half frozen, with the center a dark slash and the shores a thick slush…But a quick picture later, she was back on the battle. She'd look at all that nature later.

Fingers trembling from the cold, she spotted Knock Out, Breakdown, and Starscream among the numbers of nameless, generic 'Cons that swarmed below her, and she steadied her phone with both hands. When Optimus punched Knock Out across the face, scratching the ruby mech's paintjob across a sea of loose pebbles, she caught it on digital film. She snapped off a few pictures of Bulkhead pwning Breakdown's sorry grille with his awesome wrecking ball fists, and as Arcee and Bumblebee double teamed the would-be Decepticon leader, she managed a great photo of the look on Starscream's face as he landed aft first into the frigid lake. Everything was fast paced, and she had to work to keep up, but by the end of the conflict her throat felt hoarse from her whooping and her phone's memory was almost full.

And then it was over. Just like that. Bulkhead got a last hit on Breakdown and the 'Cons ran. The only ones that stayed behind were broken and bleeding on the snowy shore, just next to the lake.

Miko cheered as loud she could, not realizing that her voice drowned in the strong breeze that whipped past the cliff. She started back down the path with enthusiasm, but after she slipped she decided to take it slow so she didn't break her neck. All the while, she gushed about the battle and how proud she was to the mountain air, hugging her jacket to her frame, and reviewing her photographs.

But as she reached the foot of the path and rounded the fringe of trees she'd used as cover earlier, she was faced with a horrifying scene of dead 'Cons and a brightly glowing portal of a ground bridge.

"Oh, no!" she breathed. The Autobots were leaving. "Guys? Bulkhead? Wait!"

She ran forward, dodging chopped limbs and leaping over puddles of spilled energon. The wind seemed strong all of a sudden, and colder, and even her winter grade black jacket didn't keep the icy fingers of the weather off her.

As Bulkhead's back disappeared into the bridge, she shouted his name and realized that she wasn't prepared to last even an hour in this weather. She was already shivering and her teeth were chattering loudly. What worried her about this the most was that with the stick note she'd left behind, everyone would be looking for her back at base! Potentially, they wouldn't come back until she was an ice cube.

The young woman tripped over a loose cable and went tumbling to the ground, and by the time she looked up, she saw nothing but nature. There was no more sign of the ground bridge.

"Rrrrgh! How could they _miss_ me? I was right here!" she yelled, stomping her foot in the muddy snow. But suddenly she calmed, realizing she had a way out. "Hold on, I got this!"

She whipped out her phone and pressed her hotkey number for Bulkhead's comlink. She'd just call the goof and get a ground bridge back to base! No problem here!

Except that there was a shadow moving out the corner of her eye.

Spinning, Miko screamed as a hand three times her height flew past her head. She ducked and rolled, but another hand came up in front of her like a trap. She fell back, twisting her body to get away, but one of the hands grabbed both of her legs and pulled her upwards. Instant vertigo hit her as she was shaken and tossed, the world a convoluted mess of imagery as she was moved around in clawed hands. _She was caught_, her mind stated in panic. _Alone_.

She slammed face first onto cold, hard metal and the claws let her feet loose. Eager to fight back, she launched herself to her feet and took stock of her surroundings. It was the interior of what seemed to be a helicopter. All around her were Decepticon symbols, every surface either violet or dark blue, and outside she heard the dull thumping of rotor blades. Past the windows up front, she could saw a distant black horizon and the dark grey of storm clouds.

"Sit tight, human," the voice of the stranger spoke from a radio at the pilot's seat. "I'm taking you to Lord Megatron. Your presence aboard the Nemesis may bring the Decepticons leverage over your Autobot pals."

"Like slag, _creep!" _Miko snarled bravely in retort with more courage than she felt.

Her stomach flopped and she mentally clawed at herself for a plan, for a way out.

_There_.

She spotted a broken cable and darted forward, wrapping her arms around it and pulling with all her might. Surprisingly, the end came loose and the fake seats were sprayed with weird robotic liquids. She yelped, trying to keep them away from her, but then the side door opened and cold air rushed into the cabin. So, that's what that cable did, what about the next one? She heard a cry of pain as she dislodged the leaking cable to look for something else that looked important, and the chopper tilted sideways, slamming her into the closed side of the cabin.

She swore the Con was cursing at her in some alien tongue, the incomprehensible list of clicks and static he was spewing having the definitive structure of an angrily spoken language. Taking that as a good sign, she grabbed another wire and pulled, and then another. They were all coming out so easily, Miko was almost suspicious, but then she registered the amount of holes and bleeding the mech had all he wires already, and she remembered the battle. Bulkhead had softened him up for her! Perfect.

With a Cheshire grin, she grabbed a loose plate from the ceiling and yanked it off, revealing a dense set of wires within. Without thinking anything of electrical safety, she dug her hands in and pulled.

Suddenly, the chopper was thrown with a strong enough shudder in the opposite direction that she lost her grip, and she flew out the open door.

Before she thought to scream, she heard the Decepticon shouting, and in a flash of rearranging parts, the mech transformed into robot mode and caught her. Again, she was subject to an unstable view of her surroundings as her small body found itself at the mercy of forces larger than herself. The wind was cold enough that her eyes watered to keep them unfrozen, and her multicolored bangs were thrashing in front of her. Through the tears and her hair, she could see that the mech was trying desperately to brush something off himself as the ground rushed towards them with alarming speed. The only thing the girl could see down there was the stretching forest; there was no sign of the lake, or rescue. In a moment of detached horror, she watched as her cell phone slipped from her pocket and fell away into the trail of mech fluid and debris they were leaving in the air. In an attempt to brace herself for impact, she tried to cover her head, but the 'Con simultaneously jerked to the side in his own attempt to_ stop_ said impact.

Her vision was clouded momentarily, her ears not picking up sound, and she realized she hit her head. Her lower body hurt from where the robot was squeezing her, and her right hand looked burnt. Pain from her side was trying to draw her attention and the chopper seemed to be talking to somebody, but it all felt so far away, so unreal. And the fact that the Decepticon's body seemed to be turning into solid ice didn't help dispel her dream like state. The silver-blue substance crackled over the mech's frame, freezing everything from his pectoral plates to his shoulder through to the point that what was once metal was shattering apart like glass.

With the force of a freight train, the 'Con flier hit the ground and flipped forward, sending Miko through the air like a rag doll. She landed first, the monster who'd kidnapped her sailing over head as they leap frogged over hard permafrost soil. She heard the crunch of metal internals as he hit the dirt and clipped a boulder. The sound of a loud blast quickly followed, and then a fizz, and for a moment she could have sworn she heard an animalistic roar as she finished skidding over broken twigs and gravel. She only stopped moving when her shoulder blades hit the back of a tree with a thwack, her breath rushing from her lungs and sending steam into the air like fog. Distantly, she heard brief gunfire and a loud pained scream, but she couldn't see anything. Her eyes were squeezed tight, and half her body felt bloated.

The heat and frizz of cannon fire ghosted over her, and she knew she couldn't stay here if she wanted a chance at living. So, with only the burning desire to _live_ to fuel her, she pushed herself to her knees and crawled forward into thick brush, hoping to hide.

The ground quaked under her as she went, and the crackling splinter of breaking trees was too close for comfort. The sound of screeching metal filled her ears and another shot was fired somewhere from a gun that sounded like it came from some sci-fi movie of the 80s. And then, with the loudness of a door slamming, there was silence.

The crushing of cold plant matter and wind tossed pine needles were the only things Miko heard when she finally fell forward. Her legs gave out and the pain in her wrist was shooting up her arm, halting any progress towards safer cover. For the moment, she felt hot and she knew her face was flushed with the sweat of exertion. The cold air stung her skin, her eyes, and her lungs, which suddenly felt too small. Her heart began to slow, and she noticed it with terror. Was she bleeding? She wondered. She felt wetness on her leg, and she could see that her jacket was tattered down one side. She felt dirty and sick, and terribly ashamed of herself. She hadn't imagined she'd die like this. This hadn't been her plan at all. With great reluctance, she finally collapsed into hard packed dirt and stilled….

She stayed like that for what seemed like a long time, everything moving as if in slow motion. Somehow, she could see the tiniest details around her, like the small icicles on pine cones or the teeny tiny holes that gave a nearby pebble its texture. Everything was so high definition, and it all had a slight echo. She didn't think she'd ever _ever_ stayed in one place this long, and she had to wonder if this was her last stop.

Her eyelids were growing heavy, the warmth of her desperate escape bleeding from her body into the freezing climate, and she consoled herself knowing that at least she'd gone out having slain a Decepticon. It was probably the coolest thing she'd ever done in her whole life, and it had the added benefit of one less enemy her friends had to fight. If she'd been a little less damaged, a little less broken, she would have fought for survival now too, but she was just too tired.

Somewhere in her mind, she registered that snow was starting to fall. The small crystals coated the surrounding clearing with haste, some of them peppering her dark hair and settling lightly over her swollen hand.

She barely noticed the large white paws that came with them or the cool nose that touched itself to her cheek.

The last thing she saw before nodding off was the face of a beautiful white tiger, half of its face singed gray and one ear flattened backwards in what seemed to be pain.

It had the greenest eyes she'd ever seen.

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**A/N: **_Just FYI, the tiger is __**NOT**__ an OC. If you haven't noticed, this fic is a slight crossover with another TF series. n_n_

_This fic will intersect with another fic I'm writing in the future. Just...FYI._

_I chose Miko despite the seriously harrowing nature of the ending scene because I thought she could use a little more depth. Raf was an option, but he's so small and cute and we've already seen his tender side towards his friends. I would have used Jack, but his responsible nature made it hard to come up with how he would have gotten in trouble in the first place. However, I think that no matter how dire the situation, somewhere in Miko's head she'll always have some random or slightly inappropriate enthusiasm for what's going on. So I figured she was a good choice. What do you think?_


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